Can anyone explain the numerous military aircraft I saw this year? Two jets doing a daytime flyby, blackhawk helicopters around the perimeter, big cargo planes doing low flybys and one night just after dusk I saw a big Chinook do a couple laps around the man. It looked like the same kind of helicopter that the president flies in.

My hunch? It was aircraft flying in and out of NAS Fallon.
http://www.fallon.navy.mil/They were most likely taking a good look as they came through, a nice diversion of sorts. It's not every day you get a chance to see all those semi-naked people running around doing crazy shit in the desert and all that cool art.

Kinetic V ~~~~~~I bring order to chaos. And I bring chaos to those who deserve it, wherever that may be.

the one day we did have two military jets flying around the playa. I had not seen those in years before. They flew a couple of strafing runs and then would make a big loop around. Pretty loud and unmistakable as what they were.

I thought they might be Mirage jets with the color scheme they had. Mig would fit the shape also.

Indeed the military aircraft are a result of Fallon NAS being to the south and the Nevada Air National Guard out of Reno-Tahoe International Airport. I don't have my aeronautical charts for that area handy but I do know there are ALOT of military training routes (MTR's) and military operations areas around there (MOA's) so they probably detoured on their way back from training. At different points there were F-18's flying around along with F-5's painted in "agressor" colors. There were some old Yak's (I don't remember what model.) flying around most of the week as well. I did see the C-130 as well. I haven't heard anything from my military friends about the president flying by but that doesn't mean he didn't- But personally I doubt it.

Just on an aviation note though, the old Lithuanian Airlines plane at the spaceport was my favorite. Me being of direct Lithuanian descent it was awesome to see and the "Come Fly With Me" Frank Sinatra poster on it this year topped it off because- Well, come on! Frank is the shizzznittle. :P

They were Yak-52's. What fun planes!!! Wheee!!! And the Antonov? I want one of those so much... too bad they're so damn hard to get certificated by the FAA to fly here. BUt talk about flying in your theme camp? Yeahhh...

BingoBarnes wrote:Can anyone explain the numerous military aircraft I saw this year? Two jets doing a daytime flyby, blackhawk helicopters around the perimeter, big cargo planes doing low flybys and one night just after dusk I saw a big Chinook do a couple laps around the man. It looked like the same kind of helicopter that the president flies in.

Anyone else see these? Not paranoid, just curious.

The President doesn't fly in a Chinook (which has twin rotors. HMX-1, "Marine One", only has one.)

But, Imagine If You Will: You're Joe National Guard Reserve on your two-weeks-a-year drill, flying over the same dry lakebed as usual, maybe never heard of Burning Man at all. Suddenly there's a giant weird-ass circular city with planes circling around and fire shooting up through the middle of it where there's supposed to be miles of white nothingness.
You've Just Flown Into...The Twilight Zone.

I saw that chinook, too. (It was definitely a 2-rotor helicopter.) I commented on it to someone who mentioned how much fuel it takes to fly those things. Not a random sighting, I understand. I heard a rumor that they had to fly in replacement parts for the man. There's a certain plausibility for that.

It's hard to have a normal conversation with someone with 6' acrylic rods strapped to your back.